Switchstuck
by Yeliah Esor
Summary: Karen Vega has been put in charge of getting eleven of her classmates to shut up and listen to her so that they can test the video game and never talk to each other again. But apparently they're done and Karen has one question. When did they start?


An orchestra woke her up. Opening her eyes to mere slits, she identified the blob that she called her cell phone and slammed her hand against it. When that didn't shut it up, she felt around the sides for a button to press. After a moment, the ringtone cut off. The groggy girl groaned, rolled over in bed, and promptly fell onto the floor. How she managed to mistake her computer chair for her bed would always be a mystery to her, but she decided not to ponder it at that exact moment. Once more the violins began to play, and this time she glanced at the caller ID before quickly flipping her phone open.  
>"Gabby, what do you want?"<br>"Okay so weren't we going to play this game?" a voice mumbled from the other end of the line.  
>"Oh shit, yeah. Wow, sorry about that. I dozed off, I'll start it now."<br>"Okay Karen, I'll message you later then."  
>Karen would have gouged her eyes out with a rusty spoon rather than agreeing to lead a group in a trial run of this new video game. Unfortunately, that's about the only thing that would have gotten her out of this. The school decided to help put together the team of twelve, purposely pulling kids from all different cliques. They supposed that it would promote togetherness through a common goal, or some crap like that. When they all gathered into an empty classroom, there was no denying the shock and disappointment that echoed between them all. True to their intentions, nobody saw the face of their friend in the small crowd around them. Some saw rivals while some saw acquaintances and still others saw complete strangers. All that Karen saw was a load of bullshit.<br>"How do you expect me to get them to work together? Or listen to me, for that matter?" Karen had asked the principal after the short meet-and-greet was over.  
>"I don't care how you manage it, only that you do," the reply came in an icy voice.<br>With a roll of her eyes at the memory, Karen clicked the button to start the session. Over the last few weeks she'd managed to get most of them to listen to her, if not grudgingly follow directions. It had involved a lot of yelling and plenty of cough drops. Some of them resented her leadership still, rebelling at the worst times, but others were very happy to listen. Gabby was one of the later types. Karen was glad to have someone like her around, even if she'd never admit it. A message from the aforementioned skater appeared in the chat box, informing Karen that the session hadn't started yet. With an annoyed huff, she looked at the game again.  
>"Why the hell does it say game complete?" she wondered aloud.<br>Only a moment later, she was frantically calling the group's computer nerd. Despite what most people thought, Karen had no interest in computers. The local geek, Sylvia, had been a great help to her. The two constantly bickered, but it was obvious that they had become decent friends.  
>"I assume this is about why the session won't start," Sylvia said evenly as soon as she picked up.<br>"How could you tell?" Karen muttered bitterly.  
>"Because I've got some confusing information to spill," she paused for a moment, probably looking at something in the code. "According to my computer, we've already finished the game."<br>"That's not possible! I'm sure I'd remember completing the game and there's no way I could have slept through the whole thing."  
>"Wait, you were asleep too?"<br>"That makes three of us, I guess. Hold on, I'm getting a call from Alex."  
>Alexander was the closest to being like Karen, if she was honest. He was the weirdo of the school, always happy to chat with someone, but always too out-there for people to become friends with. Neither of them really had any friends to speak of, but at least Alex talked to people.<br>"Yes, Alex?" she answered, keeping her voice as even as possible.  
>"We finished the game already. I looked at my stats and they're off the charts. Also, I seem to have a ton of about twenty different types of what appears to be currency. Looking at this evidence, along with what I've gathered from calls to a few of the others, we must have finished the game."<br>"I'm so glad to have your observations," Karen began, but then halted with a sigh. "Okay, that was actually really helpful. Thank you. I'm going to go talk to Sylvia now, she's come to the same conclusion and that info might be helpful."  
>"Okay, bye Karen."<br>Only one ring passed before there was a click on the other end of the line. Without waiting for Sylvia to say something, Karen instantly launched into an explanation of what Alex had just told her. Sylvia's response was strained and curt.  
>"We need to gather the troops. Something seriously fucked up here."<br>After hanging up, Karen messaged everyone.

Karen: Guys, we need to meet up. I'll see you all in the middle school playground in no more than fifteen minutes.

Slowly, all eleven of them replied. Be there, on my way, thank god, fine, sure, whatever, I'll see you there, all variants of the same message. Karen threw her coat and shoes on before dashing out the door with a faint goodbye to her dad. Questions echoed in her head, threatening a headache, but she was able to form one thought out of it all.

_What the __**fuck**__ is going on here?_


End file.
